[45]. “Some curious facts come to light in the Scotch Registrar-General’s report in reference to prolific mothers. One mother, who was only eighteen, had four children; one, who was twenty-two, had seven children; and of two who were only thirty-four, one had thirteen and the other fourteen children; and, on the other hand, two women became mothers as late in life as at fifty-one, and four at fifty-two; and one mother was registered as having given birth to a child in the fifty-seventh year of her age.”
[46]. British Medical Journal, Nov. 21st, 1863.
[47]. It is very unusual, in this climate, for a girl to become a mother until she be seventeen or eighteen years of age. A case has just occurred, however (1864), where a girl became a mother before she reached her fourteenth year. In his last report to the Registrar-General, the registrar for Park district, Sheffield, says: “I have registered the birth of a child in my district this quarter, the age of the mother being only thirteen years and ten months. She was employed in a cotton mill in the neighborhood of Manchester.”
[48]. De Quincey.
[49]. Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy.
[50]. “The catamenial discharge, as it issues from the uterus [womb], appears to be nearly or quite identical with ordinary blood; but in its passage through the vagina it becomes mixed with the acid mucus exuded from its walls, which usually deprives it of the power of coagulating. If the discharge should be profuse, however, a portion of its fibrin remains unaffected, and clots are formed.”—Dr. Carpenter’s Human Physiology.
[51]. Dr. David D. Davis was physician-accoucheur in attendance at the birth of her present Majesty.
[52]. With regard to the origin of the word enceinte, Dr. Montgomery, in his valuable Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy, observes: “Many a one who confesses, with a smile or a blush, that she is enceinte, would do well to remember the origin of the word she uses. It was the habit of the Roman ladies to wear a tight girdle or cincture round their waists; but when pregnancy occurred, they were required by law—at least that of opinion—to remove this restraint; and hence a woman so situated was said to be incincta, or unbound, and hence also the adoption of the term enceinte to signify a state of pregnancy.”
[53]. “William Hunter had such faith in this sign that he always asserted he could judge by it alone whether or not a woman was pregnant.”—Signs and Diseases of Pregnancy. (Dr. Tanner.)
[54]. Dr. Denman.